Sunday, August 31, 2014

CNN’s
Don Lemon has anchored and reported many breaking on-the-scene news stories,
including the George Zimmerman trial, the Boston marathon bombing, the
Philadelphia building collapse, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the
Colorado Theater Shooting, the death of Whitney Houston, the Inauguration of
President Barack Obama, the death of Michael Jackson, Hurricane Gustav in Louisiana,
and the Minneapolis bridge collapse. In
2009, Ebony Magazine dubbed Don one of the 150 most influential Blacks in America.
Furthermore, he has won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the
capture of the Washington, D.C. snipers, and an Emmy for a special
report on real estate in Chicagoland. Don
earned a degree in broadcast journalism from Brooklyn College
where he currently serves as an adjunct professor, teaching and participating
in curriculum designed around new media. Here, he talks about CNN’s coverage of
the recent shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson,
Missouri.

KW:
I appreciate your taking the time to speak with me, since you seem to be on CNN
24/7lately. It’s been wall-to-wall Don Lemon from Ferguson, Missouri.

DL:
[Chuckles] I don’t know about that. It’s been a tough go,
but it’s an important story. I wanted to make sure I got it on and got it
right.

KW:
I have a ton of questions sent in for you by viewers. Attorney
Bernadette Beekman asks: Do you think your ability to report from Ferguson,
Missouri was adversely affected by your almost becoming a part of the story like
when you got shoved or punched by that racist cop [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDyOvrwYo5Q]
or when rapper Talib Kweli [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktv6IcDaozk
] put you in the awkward position of having to defend CNN’s coverage on the air?

DL:
Well, I don’t know if I became part of the story. I just
think we had so many resources devoted to it that we were way ahead of the
competition. So, everyone tuned in to CNN, and they were watching us.
[Regarding Talib Kweli] I’m not the only one on the air who’s been put in a
position of defending our reporting. If someone comes on and criticizes it,
we’re there to tell them the truth. [Regarding Officer Dan Page] I got pushed by
an officer live on television, but that was just me doing my job. He pushed me,
so it wasn’t as if I’d injected myself into the story. We were standing where
we’d been instructed to stand, and he came around the corner and shoved me when
I just happened to be doing a live shot on The Situation Room. I don’t think
that made me part of the story. It was more that everyone was watching when
news was breaking live around me.

KW: Do you still teach as an adjunct?
What grade would you give yourself on the reporting of this story
overall?

DL:
Yes, I still teach occasionally at Brooklyn College,
but I’m now more than an adjunct. I’m on the board of trustees. I would have to
give CNN an A+. I think we did a really good job. No one compared to us,
resource-wise. We had every angle of that story covered. That’s why people saw
it and felt it as if they were there. We did a great job bringing people there.
And that’s that.

KW:
Editor Lisa Loving asks: Were there any teachable moments for you as a journalist covering the
aftermath of the Michael Brown shooting?

DL:
I think there’s always a lesson you can learn from any
situation. In this case, I learned how tightly people hold onto their beliefs.
And, here, people had really strong beliefs about this story on both sides.
People supporting the officer felt Michael Brown did something wrong. Those
supporting Michael Brown said the cop did something wrong. There was very
little that you could do to convince either side otherwise, or simply to be
objective and not jump to conclusions. So, if you were just reporting the
facts, and said “Michael Brown did this…” you’d be challenged by his supporters
asking, “How do you know that?” By the same token, if you said, “Witnesses say
the cop did this…” the officer’s supporters would challenge you with “Well, how
do you know that?” It reconfirmed that I have to be objective in my reporting
and allow viewers to read into it whatever they want. So, the teachable moment
for me was a reminder that I just have to state the facts.

KW:
Aaron Moyne asks: Are
you satisfied that CNN has covered the Michael Brown case objectively, devoid
of bias and sensationalism?

DL:
Absolutely! My answer is “yes” and I’m so happy that Aaron asked
this question because that means that people are paying close attention. So,
it’s incumbent upon us not only to be objective but to be passionate about our
reporting… meaning wanting to be there… wanting to tell the truth… and wanting
to tell the story from all sides.

KW:
A crowd control police officer
overtly referred to protesters as “animals” on CNN. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQuo5-ewDR8]
Is that sound bite an accurate reflection of the state of relations between Ferguson’s police officers
and the African-American community?

DL:
I can’t answer that because I’m not a resident of Ferguson. I can only tell
you what, from being there, people are saying to me. And I know that there are
some good officers in the Ferguson Police Department, and then there are some
bad ones, just as in any police department around the country. But I don’t know
if someone calling protesters “animals” is an accurate reflection of the
Ferguson Police. You’d have to ask the police and the people of Ferguson. I know they
have issues with the department. That’s what you saw playing out on television.
They are passionately distrustful of the police. Many people are. There’s a disconnect
between the police and the community. And so that’s a question that’s better
answered by those who live there.

KW:
Has the court of public opinion
already outweighed any opportunity for Officer Wilson to voice his rationale
for shooting Michael Brown so many times?

DL:
No, I don’t think it’s outweighed his rationale. The officer
is yet to tell the public and the media what he did. I’m sure he’s already
spoken with investigators. What everyone else is really waiting on is to hear
his side of the story. But he can do that at any point. So, if anyone feels
there’s been some bias in the reporting of the story that’s because only one
side is telling their story. The officer hasn’t told his story in the first
person. In the beginning, the Ferguson Police gave a version. Then they turned
it over to St. Louis
County. And then there’s
an alleged friend of the police officer who called a radio station to tell her
side of the story. But that’s really been it. So, you haven’t heard much from
the officer’s side. However, you have heard from witnesses on the scene who have
a lot to say about what they saw happen to Michael Brown. So, if you don’t have
the officer or someone speaking on his behalf, how do you tell his story? You
can’t.

KW:
In your opinion, was
there a sufficient threat against the police for them to don riot gear, use
teargas and make such a show of deadly force?

PH:
I don’t know about a sufficient threat, but I do know there
were agitators in the crowd. We saw some of them. Come on! We saw people get
shot in front of us. I wasn’t at every scene that turned into a violent
situation, but I did see protesters instigating in some instances. Still, the
overwhelming majority of people said they were doing nothing but exercising
their right to protest and to march on the street when all of a sudden they
came up against a heavy police presence pushing them out of the way. I take
them at their word that this was true. The police said to us that we didn’t see
everything that’s going on... that people were throwing bottles of water and
urine at them, and that when something’s flying through the air they have no
idea whether it might be a Molotov cocktail. So, while I might tend to agree
with the conventional wisdom that it looks like an overly-militarized presence,
just judging from the optics of it, I would nevertheless take both sides at
their word, because I’m not the police and I wasn’t in the crowd 100% of the
time. I think there was some instigating by police, and I think there was some
instigating by some of the people who were out in the crowd.

KW:
How has all the looting
affected the public perception of the Mike Brown case? Did the optics of that
serve to divide the country along color lines?

DL:
I think in a way it distracted us from the real issues: first,
the killing of Mike Brown and, secondly, the police’s relationship with certain
members of the community. When you saw people stealing, that changed the
narrative of the story. But it also showed how upset people are. I think you’d
be hard-pressed to go back in history and find any sort of major change
achieved without some sort of upheaval. Even during the peaceful, non-violent
Civil Rights Movement, something would break out. There are often people in a
crowd who will do things they’re not supposed to, even during the celebration
of winning the Stanley Cup, the World Cup or the NBA championship. We see it
all the time. It was no different in Ferguson.
But it doesn’t suggest that the people there are different from anyone else.
It’s just that there were a few agitators in the crowd. And yes, I do think it
did take our focus off of what’s really important.

KW:
Do you have any qualms about the black community making
Michael Brown the poster child for police brutality, assuming he had robbed a
store and roughed up its owner just minutes before his confrontation with
Officer Wilson?

DL:
Listen, I can’t make people act or react a certain way.
They’re going to do whatever they’re going to do. As with any situation, I
would just urge caution and that people reserve judgment until all the facts
are out. But I do know that, regardless of what happens with Michael Brown,
it’s important that we get to the truth. That doesn’t take away the distrust of
the police and the way certain people are treated by them in our society. This
has really opened up that line of conversation. So, if anything comes out of
this, hopefully it’s a conversation that encourages police departments around
the country to look at themselves and to figure out ways to serve their communities
better.

KW:
Ray Hirschman asks: Based
on the evidence surrounding the case now, do you have a gut feeling
whether the police officer will walk or be charged with homicide and found
guilty?

DL:
You never know how these things are going to turn out. But,
and I say this knowing people are going to get upset, if you look back at the
history of similar cases, it’s very tough to convict a police officer in a
situation like this. Juries often decide that it’s easy for people to armchair
quarterback when they don’t know what a cop has to deal with out there on the
streets. I think the grand jury will have that in the back of their minds. But
I just want justice, whatever that is, whether the Michael Brown or the police
officer is right. And I think that’s what most people want. However, history
has shown that it’s very hard to convict a police officer under circumstances
like this. That’s not to say it’s not going to happen, but it’s going to be
tough.

KW:
Steve Kramer asks: Is there any
chance CNN would consider devoting an equal amount of coverage to the horrific
black-on-black killings being committed by gangs against other gangs and
innocent bystanders that occur daily in so many inner-cities in places like Chicago, Detroit, Philly
and Newark?

DL:
Steve may have a short memory, because we do devote a lot of
attention to that. We cover Chicago,
black-on-black crime, and violence in big cities a lot. The only reason people
probably bring it up is because this is a flashpoint, so you see it on the news
now. Ordinarily, we spend more time covering daily violence in big cities than
we do covering a story like this. I devote entire newscasts to what happens on
the streets in major cities all the time. It’s just that people might not have
tuned in to see it, or it might not draw the attention, because you don’t see
any rioting or teargas. But we do it all the time.

KW:
Have you been the victim of a profile stop by police?

DL:
I have had interaction with police officers, yes. What man
of color hasn’t? That’s the reality. I was also detained for “shopping while
black.” Listen, I live in America.
If I live in this country, things are going to happen to me, especially as a
black man. I’ve talked about my experiences before, but I don’t really want to
be the story.

KW:
Thanks again for the time, Don, and keep up the good work.

DL:
You’re welcome. Sorry, if I sounded tired.

KW:
You must feel exhausted. You’re on the air every time I turn
on CNN. But no need to apologize. This was another great interview. Get some
rest.

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The Sly Fox Film Reviews publishes the content of film critic Kam Williams. Voted Most Outstanding Journalist of the Decade by the Disilgold Soul Literary Review in 2008, Kam Williams is a syndicated film and book critic who writes for 100+ publications around the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, Canada and the Caribbean. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Online, the NAACP Image Awards Nominating Committee and Rotten Tomatoes.

In addition to a BA in Black Studies from Cornell, he has an MA in English from Brown, an MBA from The Wharton School, and a JD from Boston University. Kam lives in Princeton, NJ with his wife and son.